Nashville Court Reporter Places Second in National Speed Contest

August 2018 – Patricia Nilsen, of Nashville, TN, placed second overall in the National Court Reporters Association 2018 Speed Contest. The NCRA Annual Convention was held in New Orleans, LA, and the contest took place on August 1st. Results were announced August 4th.

To compete, one must hold the certification of Registered Merit Reporter (RMR). This certifies the stenographer can successfully transcribe dictation at speeds up to 260 wpm (words per minute) with at least 95% accuracy. Of the 35 top court reporters and captioners from across the country who traveled to compete in this annual contest, only 3 qualified in all three legs of dictation. Patricia’s combined percentage of 97.18% accuracy secured her second place overall.

How Fast is “Fast”?

The NCRA Speed Contest consists of three 5-minute dictation legs:

literary at 220 wpm

legal opinion at 230 wpm

testimony at 280 wpm.

Contestants have a total of 90 minutes per leg for transcription and must achieve 95 percent accuracy to qualify on each leg. The highest percentage of accuracy also determines the winners.

Additionally, the NCRA National Realtime Contest was held on August 2. Patricia placed 5th on the testimony portion with 97.956% accuracy. In this contest, testimony is dictated at 225 wpm and contestants must turn in an unedited file immediately following the end of dictation.

Patricia Nilsen – 2nd Overall in Speed

A veteran of the speed contest community, Patricia had previously placed as high as 5th overall with her performance in the 2015 NCRA Speed Contest in New York City. However, her greatest accomplishment came in Vienna, Austria, where she won the World Championship in Speech Capturing at the Intersteno Congress in 2005.

Patricia holds a Tennessee LCR and the following certifications from the NCRA: RMR, CRR, CRC, and CRI. Born and raised just outside of Buffalo, NY, Patricia started out as a deposition reporter in Binghamton before before accepting several international assignments in the courts of The Bahamas, England, and Ireland.

Returning to the U.S. in 2001 and relocating to New York City, Patricia spent the bulk of her professional career thus far as an official court reporter in federal court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan.

Currently an employee of Alpha Reporting Corporation, Patricia covers depositions, hearings, arbitrations, and other legal matters throughout the Greater Nashville area. She specializes in realtime, rough drafts, and expedited transcripts.